XPost: can.politics, bc.politics, ab.politics   
   XPost: sk.politics, man.politics, mtl.general   
   From: puela@nyet.ca   
      
   Note which pollster has come out with this latest doozie - a poll on 'shutting   
   down Parliament by Harper in very difficult times' !!   
      
   Why the hell would any pollster make that a question at this time of election   
   campaigning in Canada?   
      
   A second question should be:  Who the hell is 'AmericasBarometer' and why are   
   they taking a poll of Canadians?   
      
   Do a little research and you'll find that a someone by the name of Rich Kinder   
   is behind the Kinder Institute which is behind the AmericasBarometer survey.   
   'Kinder' ring a bell?   It should.  Rich Kinder is also the CEO of Kinder   
   Morgan - the damned pipeline that is trying to forge a way from the tarsands to   
   the coast of BC. -   
   to ply our pristine coast with thousands of Chinese tankers.   
      
   Now, back to the question of why someone behind Kinder Morgan pipelines would   
   be posing the question of 'shutting down Parliament in difficult times' . . . .   
   IS HARPER CONSIDERING SHUTTING DOWN OF PARLIAMENT AGAIN - JUST BEFORE THE   
   'DIFFICULT TIMES' COMING UP WITH THE DUFFY TRIAL?   
      
   We're being 'worked', Canadian voters.   Watch these pollsters and read between   
   the lines on what they're trying to do.  And what Harper is using to play us   
   all.   
   ______________________________________________________   
   Ottawa Citizen - January 1, 2015   
      
      
   Some say PM could justifiably shut down Parliament in crisis: survey   
      
   A small but growing minority of Canadians says the prime minister would be   
   justified in closing down Parliament and the Supreme Court in the face of   
   “very   
   difficult times,” according to a survey.   
      
   The question about the two democratic institutions is part of the sweeping,   
   biennial AmericasBarometer study, and Canadians were among the citizens of 26   
   countries surveyed for their views and attitudes about democracy and   
   governance.   
      
   The Canadian part of the online survey, conducted by Environics Institute and   
   Ottawa’s Institute on Governance in the summer, recently released its   
   results.   
   It found 23 per cent of respondents said the prime minister would be justified   
   in shutting down Parliament when the country is facing a crisis or “very   
   difficult times,” and 17 per cent would accept dissolving the Supreme Court   
   for   
   the same reason.   
      
   The vast majority of Canadians — 77 per cent — object to the idea of the   
   prime   
   minister silencing Parliament, but what’s noteworthy is that the size of the   
   minority who could accept it under dire conditions has inched up since 2010 —   
   when only about 10 per cent said the prime minister would have grounds to   
   govern without Parliament or the Supreme Court in “difficult times.” By   
   2012,   
   that percentage was 15.   
      
   The proportion who said the same about the Supreme Court stayed about the same   
   at 11 per cent in 2012 and rose to 17 per cent in 2014.   
      
   The Americas survey found Canada was also among the countries most likely to   
   support silencing their legislatures in such scenarios — behind Paraguay (29   
   per cent), Peru (27 per cent) and Haiti (26 per cent).
 Support for national   
   leaders suspending their legislatures during crises was the lowest in Venezuela   
   (7 per cent), Belize (8 per cent), Guyana (8 per cent) and Uruguay (9 per   
   cent).   
      
   Keith Neuman, executive director of Environics Institute, said he couldn’t   
   explain the findings. Canadians support democracy and the survey gave no   
   indication of the kind of crisis that would warrant steps as drastic as   
   suspending the judicial and legislative arms.   
      
   “There is nothing else in the data that clearly provides further insight into   
   that,” he said. “There are no questions around that nor other trends that   
   suggest a loss of confidence in democracy.   
      
   “It may be more about how people feel about the external world and   
   circumstances and crises that could call for extraordinary responses … I   
   don’t   
   know if that is more present today than a couple of years ago.”   
      
   Latin America has more of a history of constitutional suspension and   
   insurrection than Canada, which has had few threats to its civil order.   
      
   The last time Canada suspended civil liberties was for a domestic crisis, when   
   then-prime minister Pierre Trudeau imposed the War Measures Act in response to   
   the FLQ crisis of 1970. Neither Parliament nor the Supreme Court was suspended,   
   however.   
      
   The War Measures Act was adopted by Parliament in 1914 after the outbreak of   
   the First World War, allowing the government to suspend civil liberties and   
   bypass Parliament to maintain security and order during war or insurrection. It   
   was also used during the Second World War. It has since been replaced by the   
   Emergencies Act.   
      
   Crises have forced Parliament to temporarily shut — such as when the   
   building,   
   then based in Montreal, burned down in April of 1849 during riots over the   
   approval of the Rebellion Losses Bill.   
      
   It was closed again after another fire in 1916 until a place was found where it   
   could be reconvened. It was shut for the day on Oct. 22 when Michael   
   Zehaf-Bibeau shot and killed Cpl. Nathan Cirillo at the National War Memorial,   
   then rushed to Parliament Hill where he was killed during a gunfight.   
      
   The Supreme Court has never been suspended and parliamentary expert Ned Franks   
   says he can’t conceive that it would be.   
      
   “The government could ignore it, but it can’t shut it down. The court is   
   autonomous, head of the judicial branch and the main feature of the separation   
   of powers is that it is separate from the executive,” said Franks, a   
   professor   
   emeritus of political studies at Queen’s University.   
      
   Parliament must meet once every 12 months. In normal circumstances, it is   
   prorogued at the end of a session and dissolved when an election is called. But   
   experts said it’s inconceivable what “difficult times” Canada could face   
   that   
   would warrant such extraordinary action without consulting Parliament.   
      
   “It is hard to imagine the situation where any useful purpose would be served   
   by shutting down Parliament or shutting down the courts,” said Rob Walsh,   
   Parliament’s former law clerk and chief legal adviser.   
      
   The survey found the idea met minority support across the population but was   
   somewhat higher among Canadians
 on the political right, Conservative party   
   supporters, those without a high school diploma and immigrants. This increase   
   since 2012 was most notable among younger Canadians, those without a high   
   school diploma, immigrants and those on the middle and right of the political   
   spectrum.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)